


The French Lesson

by caliecat



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Bromance, Character Study, Coda, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Family, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caliecat/pseuds/caliecat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grace, Danny and Steve discuss the important things in life.</p><p>Coda to Episode 1x20, Ma Ke Kahakai, and sequel to "Sign Language".</p>
            </blockquote>





	The French Lesson

"Daddy, what's important?"

"What's that, baby?" Danny murmurs, shuffling through the stack of case files spread out across the coffee table.

"I mean in life. What's the most important thing?"

He leans back against the couch and studies her. Grace is sunk into the big leather chair, pen in hand, open notebook on her lap, one leg folded under her in a pose he couldn't manage even with two good knees. A minute ago she was rambling on about new furniture for Barbie's playhouse, now she wants him to unlock the mysteries of the universe.

Next to him, Steve gives an exaggerated cough and bumps Danny's shoulder, an irritating smirk already in place. Danny shoots him a warning glance, then takes in the tired, glassy eyes dulled by painkillers, the tense line of the broad shoulders, the casted arm elevated on a pillow and covered by an ice-bag.

In a heartbeat he's standing on the edge of that cliff, frozen with fear and certain Steve is dead. His hands hadn't stopped shaking until Steve was swinging on the rescue line and flying toward safety. He wonders what Steve remembers of that moment, if he was too disoriented by pain and trauma to fully comprehend what happened, to understand how close he came to not being here at all.

So okay, Danny will go easy on him today.

He shakes off the memory and turns back to Grace. She's searching his face with such trust and innocence that his breath catches in his throat.

"It's just that, well, we have this homework project, we're supposed to write about what we think is really important. Like if we're old and looking back on our life."

"Oh." He considers the question. Maybe not such a bad idea even if the overpriced progressive school Rachel and Stan make her attend is a little too pretentious for his tastes. But still, what happened to the basics, like reading and writing, art projects made out of pipe cleaners, pizza and fries in the cafeteria, stickball and tag at recess....

"Daddy?"

He blinks and comes back to the present. "Yes, that's a big question, Gracie."

"My teacher said we could interview people to get ideas. So I did." She taps her notebook and nods, clearly proud of her diligence. Always a good student, completing all of her assignments without prompting.  A trait she got from her father, of course.

"And what did you find out?"

"Stan said having a lot of money is important  so the socialists don't take it all away." She looks up from her notes, frowning. "Who are the socialists?"

He pulls a face and shares a dark look with Steve. "Never mind about them. When did he tell you that?"

"He was watching the news, you know the one named after the animal? I think it's...uh...."

"Forget it, that's not what's important anyway, Stan's just—"

"An asshole," Steve breathes in his ear, too low for Grace to hear. Danny elbows him in the side. Steve smiles and settles back.

Grace turns another page. "And Tommy said you need a ginormous house so you can have one room just for watching movies and another for your video games and a tennis court out back and also—"

"Stop, I get the picture. I told you before, Tommy's a goof and you should ignore everything he says." That's the problem with Rachel's neighborhood, too many of the kids are spoiled brats. "What did your mom say?"

"Something like knowing what you want in life and making the right choices, but then she got kind of mad and wouldn't explain it." Grace unfolds her leg and pulls both feet up to the edge of the chair, resting her notebook on her knees. "I don't think she likes my teacher," she whispers loudly, as though revealing a great secret.

"I'm sure you're right." He isn't about to run interference for Rachel's neuroses.  She made her bed, now she can lie in it.

"Mommy also said following rules is important. But that's because I went into Stan's study to get a pencil and I'm not supposed to go in there." She drops her eyes and fiddles with her watch.

"That's true, rules are important," he says gently.

"Not always, Danny," Steve pipes up. "Sometimes you have to break them to get the job done."

He whirls on Steve and points a finger in his face. Injured or not, Grace doesn't need to hear his twisted views on process and procedure. "No, see, that's exactly the problem with you. You think you know better than everyone else and you don't. Rules are there for a reason and you don't get to choose which ones to follow."

Steve lifts an eyebrow and grins, cocky and confident and possibly a bit loopy from the drugs. "But I _do_ know better. And isn't that what cops do, think on their feet and adapt to the situation? I mean, if I'm wrong, tell me, but we both know I'm not."

"Shut up," Danny mouths at him and turns back to Grace. "Don't listen to him, he's crazy."

"Okay," she says with no conviction at all, beaming at Steve with open admiration. "Do you want to hear the other ones?"

"Go ahead." She probably did more research for this than the rest of the class combined. Again, taking after her father.

"So I asked Kono and she said something about how the earth and sun and sky are your heart but I really don't get it. Oh, and be your own woman."

"Time enough for that," Danny says under his breath. She's growing up so fast, one day soon she won't need him like this anymore and then where will he be? If only—

"Hey Danny, only a few more years," Steve adds brightly, reading his mind. Danny elbows him in the side again, this time hard enough to elicit a grunt.

"Daaad," Grace says, halfway between worry and exasperation. "You'll hurt him."

"Don't worry, he likes it." He gets a kick to his ankle in return. "When did you talk to Kono, anyway?"

"I called her on my cell." She draws the words out, regarding him like he's an alien unfamiliar with earth ways. 

Of course, the sparkly pink phone with the unlimited calling plan. Yet another entitlement she doesn't need at her age, another battle with Rachel he lost. "Anyone else?"

"Oh yeah, Uncle Chin said you have be centered." She glances down at herself sitting squarely in the big chair then back at Danny with a puzzled expression. "Am I leaning?"

He laughs at that. "No, you're perfect, it's just something people say. It means you have to...well, be happy inside, I guess." Chin tried explaining it to him once but he didn't have the patience to unravel the complex tangle of metaphors and allegories. Just live your life and roll with the punches, that's Danny's philosophy.

"Okay, good." She studies her notes again then looks up, worried. "But he also said I have to find my own true self. Is he saying I lie? Because Daddy I don't, I swear I—"

"Whoa! No, he is definitely not saying that. Come over here."

She slips off the chair and pads across the floor. Steve slides over to make room on the couch and she tucks herself into the space between them, resting her head against Danny's chest. He smiles down at her, stroking her silky hair.

"That's just another saying, we all know you don't lie." He tugs playfully at her pigtail until he gets a smile in return.

"But telling the truth, that's important, right?" Her upturned face is serious again.

"Sure it is." _Except when it's the FBI, then it's okay to lie._ He shoots a sidelong glance at Steve, who slides his eyes away. The amused smirk gone.

"And catching the bad guys, that's important, too."

"Yeah." _Unless it's your brother, then you let him get on a plane and disappear forever._

"And doing the right thing, that's what you always told me."

"I did, didn't I," he says with a lightness he doesn't feel. _Like stealing ten million dollars._

He rubs his forehead, chasing away the first stirrings of a headache. How can he explain something he doesn't understand himself? Black and white morph into shades of gray until one day you're groping in the dark, a universe away from where you started, wondering if there are any boundaries left at all.

"When you're a grown-up, knowing what's important can be complicated, it's not always easy to..."

That sounds ominous. He clears his throat and tries again. "You see, there are a lot of... there are things that..."

"Want to know what I think?" And there's Steve, backing him up as usual.

"Yes!" Grace sits up, eager for the answer. For some reason whatever he says is always of great importance to her.

Danny is less enthusiastic. He read the SEAL creed early on when he first tried to crack into Steve's head and figure out what makes him tick. There's still a dog-eared copy stuffed into his desk drawer, a Rosetta Stone of Steve's unfathomable motives and incomprehensible actions.

Now he's expecting some long-winded speech about duty and honor that will fly right over Grace's head, some Steve-style attempt to cloak his decidedly un-cop-like methods in pretty words.

But Steve surprises him.

"My mom used to talk about the only one happiness in life, it was a quote from a writer she liked." He smiles, remembering. "She was always reading. At night she'd sit on the lanai with her books and wait for my father to come home from his shift. Sometimes she'd call me out there after Mary went to bed and I'd read with her. It was nice, just the two of us sitting there for hours, waiting together."

Danny stares at him, fascinated with this rare glimpse of his childhood. Steve catches his look, laughs a little and shrugs. "Anyway, that's how I learned it. The quote about happiness.  _D'aimer et d'être aimé."_

"French?" It sounds authentic enough to Danny but then it's not a language he speaks.

"Yeah. She said I should know the classics no matter what I planned to do with my life." Steve's quiet for a long moment, teeth worrying his lower lip. "George Sand wrote it, in the 1800s I think. Who come to think of it was actually a woman."

"Wait, that's a boy's name. Why did she—?"

"Shhh." Danny strokes Graces' hair absently, his eyes locked on Steve's. "So what's the translation, the one happiness in life?"

"To love and be loved," he says softly, then shifts his gaze to a point across the room.  Danny watches the pink creep up his cheeks.

"That's perfect! Isn't it Daddy?" Grace is vibrating against his side.

"Yes it is, sweetie."

She wriggles out of his grasp and hits the floor. "I've got to write all this down," she says and races out of the room. Once she's gone Steve snaps back to life, searching under the papers on the coffee table with all the intensity of one defusing a bomb.

"What are you looking for?" Danny asks, amused.

"Remote. There must be a game on." Steve finds it and snatches it up, clicks on the TV and runs through the channels, still not meeting Danny's eyes, his ears so red they must be burning.

"If that would make you happy, be my guest."

"Yes, it would. It would make me very happy right now."

"That's what's important then. Happiness, I mean."

"Right," Steve says, with the beginning of that big sappy smile that always kicks Danny in the heart.

He collapses back on the couch, bone-tired, weary of solving puzzles and mysteries. At least Grace got the answer she needed.

Maybe he did too.

The voice of the play-by-play announcer drones in the background. Late afternoon sunshine floods the room with warmth, burnishing the wooden beams to a deep gold. It's almost time to start planning dinner.

Today's lesson is over but school is still in session.


End file.
